Each year, Prison Fellowship recognizes volunteers and employees who have made a difference in the lives of prisoners and their families by presenting them with the Shining Star Award. In the coming weeks, the blog will highlight some of the 2012 Shining Star recipients and their work.
As a full-time official court reporter in Edwardsville, Illinois, Christy Streicher is used to capturing every word uttered in a courtroom. But while she typed away recording all the details of each proceeding, it was those dramatic stories and the thought of the defendants’ children that captured her heart. After all, these were the innocent victims of crime.
Her compassion for children developed decades earlier when she was about 10 years old. During a Christmas Eve midnight service, she felt compassion for all the children who would not be opening presents the following day. One day, she vowed, “I will help them.”
Twenty years ago, Christy fulfilled that vow. She learned of Angel Tree through a Bible study she attended at the courthouse where she worked and then approached her pastor to get Angel Tree started in her church.
Christy has volunteered for the past 20 years in seven Illinois counties. Angel Tree program specialist Laura Nelson says that Christy is a woman whose heart is turned toward the Lord and who has a special affinity for children. As she works in the court system, every day she sees what incarceration can do to families—especially children. “As one of my area coordinators, I know that every single child she is responsible for will be served by a local church,” says Laura.